When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in a group of detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.”

Can you imagine how hard the folks in Belgium were laughing at these clowns?

Many more cables name diplomats’ confidential sources, from foreign legislators and military officers to human rights activists and journalists, often with a warning to Washington: “Please protect” or “Strictly protect.”

"Well it certainly begs the question because if some PFC in the Army either has access or is able to hack into that access, this kind of information, we have some very serious problems."

Agreed. And if he did have access that easily then things certainly have changed since I was in the service. I had a TS(SCI) clearance and worked at HQ EUCOM and never saw diplomatic stuff. It required more than just a TS, but a "need to know" involving WINTEL and who knows how many other acronyms . . .

My other thought was no big whoop content wise, really. (Except the idea that it's all out there... like hanging around in other bathrooms and bedrooms ... ewww. "Junk" we don't want or need to see or touch.)

Everyone KNOWS that the diplomats, functionaries and others are wheeling and dealing and dissing everyone all over the world... And what do they find? Really America doesn't come across as evil as much as dorkey as far as I can see.

Assange is a wimp. A real jerk. Like people who are afraid to say anything remotely critical of Islam lest they get their heads cut off.

Now *I* want him to do a spill of Iran's, and Saudi Arabia's, and "Palestine's" and North Korea's stuff. Hey -- I'll even settle for stuff from Pahkistan as a starter.

C'mon Julian. Use your magic boy! Go for the Big Game.

(Although some of the info that's there, that we already knew in our gut, about Iran and Saudi Arabia and NK ... For all you those who think those guys are not so bad after all, it's all a misunderstanding of culture ... Think again.)

People often forget that Watergate was the result of Nixon's attempt to plug leaks after the release of the Pentagon Papers; he didn't order that particular bugging but it was still an action taken by his team.

While the papers had nothing to do with Nixon, they did make other nations far less likely to negotiate with us for fear of a leak (think China and the USSR). Frankly this is the most likely danger from the whole Wikileaks thing.

I figure that Althouse's "Obama is like Nixon" tag is going to get some major use if these humiliating releases continue.

Among their revelations, to be detailed in The [NY]Times in coming days:

¶ "A dangerous standoff with Pakistan over nuclear fuel: Since 2007, the United States has mounted a highly secret effort, so far unsuccessful, to remove from a Pakistani research reactor highly enriched uranium that American officials fear could be diverted for use in an illicit nuclear device."

Makes you wonder if Pakistan has nuclear weapons after all? Israel doesn't seem worried. Could it be those five they set off (all on one day!) back in the 1990's were a hoax?

In which case it would be one less reason we should stay involved in that corner of the world.

I think Israel is probably not concerned as much since should Pakistan go, chances are, those nukes would probably be set off in Dehli before Tel Aviv. I don’t think there is a huge Death to Israel movement in Pakistan. That being said, I like to believe that maybe between the US, India, Russia and even China, that there is some secret cooperative task force that is ready at a moment’s notice to move in and secure those nukes should Pakistan fall apart but maybe I’ve read too many Clancy novels

Maybe we have more to fear from Little Brother than Big Brother. The fulcrum of technology has shifted and given a PFC more power than a CIA director.....I would feel more sanguine about this phenomenon if China, Russia, Iran, etc were troubled by doc dumps by disgruntled file clerks.

President Obama supports responsible, accountable, and open government at home and around the world, but this reckless and dangerous action runs counter to that goal. By releasing stolen and classified documents, Wikileaks has put at risk not only the cause of human rights but also the lives and work of these individuals. We condemn in the strongest terms the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents and sensitive national security information.

How much longer until we see Obama in front of the fireplace in a cardigan?

Remember when Dubya used the term "axis of evil" in his 2002 State of Union address? Iraq, Iran, North Korea -- rogue states determined to share with each other the means to destroy and defeat the U.S. and her allies. Well, here's another shocker from the recent Wikileak dump.

Hoosier Daddy wrote:Is it customary for a PFC in Intel to have this kind of access to classified material? If he didn't did he hack into the computer system to get it?

Apparently, based on his own admission to his handler he was able to bring a rewriteable CD of say Lady Gaga, which he erased then filled with all of these files,while pretending ot hum Lady Gaga songs. And he had unrestricted access for months.

Though he is in fact an american citizen can we waterboard this twerp? We can call it training. He was supposed to go through SERE training but never did, so we're just helping him pass his training (Referring to the gay soldier and not To Wikileaks albino).And afterwards he should be put into stress positions, forced to undergo sleep deprivation, and then finally solitary confinement. Then he should be flogged like that kid who went to Japan and graffitied up the place, then he should be stoned like female adulterers in Iran. Then he should be drawn and quarted with his limbs sent to the four corners of the US and his head put on a spike on top of the flagpole hanging the American flag at the White House.

You are evil, Fen... pure fucking evil. I would ask how you sleep at night but I know you sleep well, content in the self-satisfaction of having worshiped at the altar of authority. Why do you hate the free press and free speech, and transparency and honesty in government? Anti-freedom authoritarian people like you are the biggest threat to our country, worse than Al-Qaeda. Folks like you want to turn our country into something like China where no one can speak out against the government without risking their lives.

What if someone were to say that your family should be rounded up and shot? Oh, forget it... you have no empathy or values... you are soulless and empty. Death is nothing but casual to you.

I hope you die, Fen. I'd say that I hope your family dies too-- as an "object lesson"-- but I won't do that because I am not a death-lover like you are.

But how is Julian Assange not a modern day whistleblower just like Daniel Ellsberg was in 1971?

The Pentagon Papers, which exposed the immoral imperialistic war America was prosecuting, led directly, through Watergate, to Nixon's resignation.

Like candidate Nixon, candidate Obama promised to end our immoral imperialistic war. You should want Obama to green light a secret operation to break into Julian Assange's psychiatrist's office. When that criminal act leads back to Obama, he'll have to resign in shame. Congress will then defund the illegal War on Terror that Lyndon W.Bush Johnson started and the voters will elect the next Jimmy Carter.

Only the next Jimmy Carter we hope will be wise enough not to splash at scared terrorized bunny rabbits swimming their little hearts out trying to get away from the hunting dogs, hoping New Jimmy Carter will offer them the love, safety and sanctuary that that old bastard First Jimmy Carter couldn't.

Under this theory King Abdullah expected to talk about militarily confronting Iran, and he couldn’t believe it when Obama kept reciting bromides about the earth-shattering importance of the Israeli/Arab conflict and his enthusiasm for solving it. That was a regular public topic between the two – Obama’s first talk with Abdullah focused on Gaza and the President later emphasized his abiding support for Saudi Arabia’s “Israel Has To Commit Suicide” plan – but the King kind of thought he was dealing with a serious person who could separate spectacle from policy. Instead he got the equivalent of an International Relations graduate student enamored with pseudo-sophisticated “insights” he’d gleaned from Arab media outlets

Meade wrote:The Pentagon Papers, which exposed the immoral imperialistic war America was prosecuting, led directly, through Watergate, to Nixon's resignation.

The ironic thing about the Pentago papers is that Ellsberg stole documents that didn't actually impicatie Nixon in anything really bad. It wa his predecessors (Like Kennedy for example) which the Papers put a critical light on. So he didn't go through with Watergate to protect his own malfeasance, but to get dirt on Ellsberg for revealing data about the presidency in general and for revlealing state secrets which were classified.